MH-076 pOnk - Remaking The PastRemaking The Past is the Mush debut for Berlin based musician Frederik Knop, better known as pOnk. His band, the post-rock trio mOck, worked with John McEntire (Tortoise, Sea and Cake) to mix and perfect the sound of their 2012 self-titled debut released on I Love To Hate Records. It soon became clear that the wealth of pristinely recorded individual tracks were the perfect source material for a pOnk project. The sounds were taken apart and then twisted and recombined in unconventional and imaginative ways to create the aptly titled EP, Remaking The Past. The result is not a remix, but a true original work that does not keep to any structure or grouping of sounds defined by the mOck album. Instead the music over twelve continuous minutes slowly morphs as it ebbs and flows much like a time-lapsed view from a car window on a long-trip. With a multitude of ideas and projects in the works, Remaking The Past is a perfect introduction to an artist who is equal parts electronic musician, composer and sound-designer.

Tracklist

01. Remaking The Past (Part 1)

02. Remaking The Past (Part 2)

Release Details

Release Date: 05/29/2012

Running Time: 12:00

Download/Available/$3.00

LOSSLESS/Available/$5.00

Territory: World

Reviews Summary

Simply one of the best headphone albums of the year. - Slug Magazine / Like test-tube babies playing acoustic, Remaking the Past, puts electro-orchestral in a beaker and lets the compounds dissolve. - Gozamos / I dare the casual fan to create something just as exciting. Exactly - This Is Book's Music

So one of your favorite post-rock bands is, of course, Mars Volta, right? And you have an album from krautrock influenced Can on your ipod because you’re holding on to some memory of your travels through Mexico and all those weird-art friends you made last year? Kraftwerk has always been on your radar, but you’re not really sure if you’d know any of their songs if you heard them, even though your friend from/in Brazil just told you they were playing Sonar’s satellite intelligent, performance-noise festival down there this month.

If you’re anything like me, and you’re just getting into the history of the krautrock canon, finding bands that fall under the post rock-electronica rubric quite fascinating, then I’d say Berlin-based Frederik Knop’s solo project, pOnk is as best a start as any. Playing off of his work with mOck, the renown multi-instrumentalist, pOnk uses Knop’s prowess as a Ph.D. doing, musicologist-musician, to combine found sound extrapolations, recorded instrumentation and discerning electronics on his MushRecords debut,Remaking the Past. Utilizing Knop’s abilities as sound-designer, producer and composer to the utmost potential, Remaking the Past, precisely meanders past the clichés of unconventionality and conceptualism, while simultaneously positing a very jazz influenced array or controlled-jam torpor.

Remaking the Past reworks recordings of mOnk’s work with John McEntire, more notably of the Sea and the Cake, who mixed the original trio’s 2012 self-titled debut (free download) on I Love to Hate Records. The release reminds me of Deep Politics byGrails, for its moody, corporal and intense tonality. Coil’s Stevo, Pay Us What You Owe Us and Avey Tare’s Down There might be in the range of this solo debut (minus the vocals on both). However, more aptly, I’m partial to mention my Remezca review of the Peruvian krautrock art-rock scenesters, Serpentina Satélite for the cross-referential modernization of the genre and the vitalization of post-rock at large. These two bands, might be a perfect pairing at an intimate house party in Mexico City some day. The sincerity and the simplicity of Remaking the Past works well against the riley contrivances of the everyday musical reviewing barrage.

All you folk and fam with sophisticated palettes will appreciate this sound-collage examination, as Knop compiles and probes at alchemic properties of easy listening, light, yet profound aural selection. Like test-tube babies playing acoustic, Remaking the Past, puts electro-orchestral in a beaker and lets the compounds dissolve. - Gozamos